Into Oblivion: The Return
by TimLaw
Summary: Join Wolf Squadron and the crew of the Nightfall as they uncover an deadly enemy that has arisen once again.


**Chapter 1**

The stars shimmered as a spot in the space around them started to become dark, with no light passing through. The dark, lifeless hole in space grew until it reached the size of the nearby planets orbiting the sun. It let no light pass through yet as it reached its apex of growth a white metallic object burst out of the dark spot it had created, and within seconds of the event happening, the angular shape of white metal had come through into the space around it. Then as quickly as it started, the spot was gone. The large metallic object resembled something that might have belonged in 21st century's science fiction movie and looked almost alien, but yet its boxy construct and smooth nose gave away its true nature. The Earth Alliance Ship ' Nightfall' was in fact a small human patrol ship, and although it looked large enough to hold as many as two hundred crew it in reality only held fifteen. Ten crew members and five fighter pilots all served in this tight crew. The ships make up was general of small naval ships like these, the rear decks were reserved for the sensor systems, the engines and engineering plus the ships Artificial Intelligence core. The Mid section was usually set aside for the crew area, galley and med bay, while the front was the command and control area, The Bridge. The bottom of the Nightfall also held a small fighter bay for additional support. The alien sleekness and Human engineering gave the Nightfall the look of a beautiful killer, as under its metallic beauty lay a mass array of weaponry ready to be unleased in a moment's notice.

Captain Keenan Wilding watched as the strips of light returned to the classic white specks that the stars usually took. The tall middle age man sat in his seat behind the other stations watching both his HUD display and the viewports out into space. His bronzed skin and slim build coupled together with the short blonde aging hair made the man a figure head for the crew. "Revert to real space complete, Captain" his navigator said breaking Keenan's concentration on the view port. Master Sergeant Jasmine Redcliff had been a navigator for the Earth Alliance Navy for many years and by her position in life may end up being there for many more. She was a middle age woman who in her younger years must have been a snow flake beauty, though her looks and her white skin had not lost her beauty her cold blue eyes hid a cool intelligence. Her age had begun to show though stress lines had started to form in the cresses of her face and the first of many silver hairs had started to take place in her fiery red hair. "Thank you Redcliff" Keenan said to her with his trademark unreadable face. Keenan had always tried to keep a calm manner while in command. A trait at which had gain him the respect and trust of the crew, it also meant that should they come under any sort of emergency he was more than likely to be cool, calm and collective. But this worked both ways as Keenan came to think of the crew, some he had served with for five years now, as family and knew that they felt the same way.

"Sir" his engineer spoke as her picture flick up on his HUD, "Hyper lane engines are locked down" she finished. Keenan looked down at the picture of his engineer. She was one of the Xainians, an entirely female feline race that relied heavily on their advanced technology to accomplish any task. Ten years ago in the final months of the Liberation War the Earth Alliance found them close to the point of extinction by the same bloodthirsty aliens that had taken earth years ago. In exchange for the humans help the peaceful Xainians provided leaps in human's technology, providing ways to produce food from nothing to upgrading their deadly warships. Some had even taken human partners of course many of those partners were female. His engineer, Warrant Officer Aion, stood at least two feet higher than Keenan who was himself six foot two. Her short silver fur gave the appearance of skin and yet kept their body temperature at a constant heat. But the fur, when undressed, didn't hide much of the aliens body, in fact many human women envied the Xainians for having what was said to be the perfect body. The only thing that seems to change was their bust size and colours, though their hair and eyes were as diverse as humans were. The Xainian's face was more human than feline but yet still had the ears and their eyes too. Aion's Hair was platted down her back and her yellow coloured eyes were filled with what Keenan knew was a great intellect. "Thank you Aion" Keenan replied as he pressed the com button in his chair. He watched as the screen then flicked back to the previous readouts and he released the com button.

Keenan's vision then turned to his right and on to his weapon's officer, which told the young man it was his turn for a report. Master Chief Dmitri Zudski looked as though he had been pulled straight out of a recruitment poster or some form of action movie. His muscular figure had put down man a bar fight before they had started and to people who didn't know the 22 year old man he was a scary sight. At average height Dmitri had wanted to be a professional wrestler but after the naval academy he lost the chance tearing his Achilles tendon. The doctors had repaired it but it would never be the same. The man gave that dream up but he was still the kind hearted man of his academy days and even now would always help a friend in need. "Weapons Operational, sir. Locked at condition Yellow" he said meaning that they could be online with in minutes instead of the hour or so needed should the safety be on. "Thank you Zudski" he said to the shaven man. Last but not least Keenan turned to his left where a young girl straight from the academy sat. It was her first trip outside the training and Keenan wanted to see how she handled the easy stuff. Airmen Syn Noles looked up from her HUD and back towards the Commanders face. If she was nervous about anything she did not show it, her dark blue eyes stared at the captain's with the excitement and pride that came with newly graduated crew. "Communications are now online again and both sensors and the Sonar Buoys are coming online now sir" she said holding back a smile from her face. She let out a silent sigh of glee as she flick some of her, shoulder length mousy brown, hair out of her face and behind her ear. "Good work Noles" Keenan replied to her satisfaction and she turned her slim body back to her HUD. "Good work people, now let's plot the course. We have orders remember, we are getting a new crew member and some refits to the Nightfall" he said checking his HUD once more going over the displays of the other stations.

As the ship sored through space towards its destination, the ships gym was the centre of attention for the hour it would take. Many of the crew had retired here after their initial reports and were now sharing a event with the other members of the crew. Keenan walked down towards the gym, having found out where his long-time friend had disappeared to. But when he walked in to the gym through the bulkhead door he hadn't expected this. He looked at the middle of the room where a boxing ring had materialized thanks to the ships computer. It was only a hologram but it served its purpose. He looked at the two combatants standing in their respected corners. At the far corner stood a slim female, her long black hair tied into a rough ponytail so to avoid it getting in her eyes. The blue padded helmet she wore covered most of her face but her deep blue eyes starred at her opponent with the intensity of an avalanche. The tight tank top of Navy Blue and her skin tight shorts didn't interrupt the slim curvature of her body in one bit. The other crew member wearing red was a man of medium build, being slimmer than most of the boxers Keenan knew from the comm vids. The man wore no shirt and was sporting a tattoo on his right shoulder blade of Thor's Hammer and the words 'Hammer' underneath it. His loose shorts were not that loose on the man but showed the intense muscles in the man's legs as he hoped on one then the other. The man also had short brown crew cut and brown eyes to match. Keenan looked from the two fighters to around the room seeing another female crew member wearing the same as the other and with her golden blonde hair in a neater pony tail giving the dark haired woman what Keenan could only guess was advise or encouragement. Aion and Dmitri were also here sitting on the far side cheering at the competition which was about to begin. Then Keenan spied who he was looking for, his XO and squadron leader for the fighters he had on board. He moved towards the man who was sitting on a seat with it rocked back on two legs and with his bare feet on a small table in front of him. The man of medium build wore a Navy Blue shirt and the same colour track pants, as well as having a black baseball cap with 'Nightfall' printed in gold letters. The man's mousey brown hair was long enough to be put in a small pony tail but from the look under the hat the man was clean shaven. He sat there watching the combatants in the ring ready themselves while he ate an apple with a small knife in his hands. "So what's going on here?" Keenan asked the man who turned his icy blue eyes towards Keenan. The man let out a cocky smile as he replied "While Cap' Thomas there decided that men are better at everything than women" he said pointing first to the man in red, Thomas, and then to the woman in blue. "Katlynna there has decided to show Thomas the error of his ways once again" the man replied with a chuckle and Keenan smiled. He shook his head at the two in the ring _they are always fighting about_ something he thought then turned back to the man sitting down. "Tyco put ten on Katlynna for me will you" he said with a smirk as Tyco nodded his capped head to his commanding officer. "I doubt it will last long" Tyco added as Aion rang the bell on the side of the wall.

For a few minutes there were some testing of the defences between the two fighters as they danced around the room, then the fight began with Katlynna's first strike followed by a quick jab in retaliation from Thomas and for a while it looked quiet even. That was until Katlynna got Thomas into a position she wanted him in the ring. As Thomas went to throw his next punch Tyco noticed that the blonde haired woman, Skyla, had pulled her shirt up in his vision. The distraction of the bare breasts in his vision caused the man to miss wildly and as another effect failed to bring up his defence in time to block Katlynna's right cross, sending the now dazed man down to the floor. Skyla smiled at Katlynna as her shirt was brought back down to cover her chest up again and then both women headed over to Thomas to help the man up. On the sidelines Tyco saw Dmitri pass over some money over to Aion, which left the pilot smiling. "Never underestimate the power of a woman" he said laughing out loud. He then took his feet off the table bringing his chair back to having four legs on the ground and stood up in one fluid movement. "So Cap' what did you to see me about" he said turning towards Keenan. The Nightfall's Commander turned to the younger pilot, "We will be arriving at Mil Outpost in about half an hour. I received a message before we jumped saying that along with the refit we are to take on a few extra personnel. A small group of marines for ground incursions and ship security and another fighter pilot who has drop ship training" Keenan said, as Tyco looked at him. "I guess that's why the hurry, The Alliance thinks we need the extra help for the pirate duty I suppose" Tyco continued giving the commander a cheeky smirk at the thought of it. Keenan shook his head at the man, "Just make sure they are settled …. " he was cut off as the ship's inter com came alive. "Captain, we need you on the bridge" came Syn's voice over the ships com.

Moments later both Keenan and Tyco had arrived on the bridge to a pair of worried faces. While Jasmine kept the ship flying towards the now apparent starbase, Syn turned in her seat. "Sirs, Mil Outpost is not responding on normal Alliance channels, but what's worse is the emergency keep away beacon is active" Syn said looking at them. The emergency keep away beacon, or Crybaby as the sailors had nicked named, was a distress signal that all communication computers of arriving ships could pick up and be warned to keep away. Usually it was accompanied with a category representing a certain incident. Keenan looked at Syn's console as he spoke "What's the problem?". "That's what the problem is sir, There is no category marker. It's like someone activated it without knowing how it works … " Syn was cut off by Jasmine as something new appeared. "Sir sorry but we have a life pod. She is directly in our path. I'm reading low power but life support is good. Their communication is damaged though as well as thrusters". Keenan looked at the younger woman then at Tyco. His face once again calm and collective as his mind ticked over the facts and situation then after only seconds he turned back to Syn. "Noles signal the yellow alert. I want the crew ready for anything. Redcliff set our course to pick up the life pod then to the station. Law get your pilots and the Doc suited up, I want to know what's going on here" he said giving out his orders, the trio of "Aye Aye" signalled his orders were understood and seconds later the alarm was going off indicating the new status of a yellow alert. All the crew members from the bridge came running back to their stations as Tyco ran out towards the Hanger Bay.

After signalling the rest of the pilots Tyco went to get the Doc, First Lieutenant Jade Fable, from the medical bay. It took only a moment to reach the bay behind the gym, Tyco walked into the bay and stopped in his tracks as he spotted the Doc. The dark haired, milky white woman was finishing up packing her medical back pack bending over to put the last few things in. Tyco just stood there tilting his head slightly staring at her behind with a smirk on his face. As if she knew Jade stood up and turned at her hips to look at him, a playful smirk formed on her face as she spoke to the pilot's commander "Like what you see captain". Tyco let a small laugh "Maybe, but for now Keenan wants us to suit up." Another smirk appeared on Tyco's face at the thought of the well-endowed medical officer suiting up. But the doc knew the pilot's mind and shot him down straight away, "In your dreams fly boy" she said as she walked past him and down the corridor to the stairs to go the Hanger Bay. Tyco defeated just smiled and followed the lieutenant to the hanger bay where the other pilots were waiting.

Tyco walked into the medium sized change room that was the only way to get to the airless hanger bay. The room was basic locker room used for centuries in various occupations ranging from sports to military like this one. Tyco was the last one in and headed straight for is locker located to the northern area of the room. Although many lockers could be seen few were actually used as many were for visitors and marines who at present the Nightfall had neither. Tyco stripped off his gym clothes till he was bare and then chucked his clothes in the locker on top of one of the three selves. Then he grasped the suit hanging up in the locker, he then stepped into the skin tight flight suit and pulled the rubbery material up. The Navy blue suit had a split in the back to make the suit easier to get on in a hurry, and once Tyco had gotten the suit on putting his arms into it and dragging it up to his neck he looked at the small grey ring that was attached to the left arm sleave. The metal ring went from his wrist and half way up his fore arm, it held a screen at the top that had a few indicators for his life signs as well as four coloured buttons. Tyco looked at them and pressed the green one on the right. The split in the back of the suit began to seal itself together starting from his tail bone to his collar bone and to the naked eye was seamless.

Tyco then looked back into the locker and grabbed two more things, the first of which was a grey rectangle that had two curved metal arches protruding from it. Tyco placed the two arches of each shoulder so that the rectangular box was square in the middle of his upper back. The minute the box hit the suit a mechanical noise was heard and the red light on the box flashed to yellow and then a second later to green. The second object was a 3 centimetre thick steel belt which also was integrated with the suit as Tyco put it around his waist, the belt also had a small light that flashed from red to yellow to green. Both green lights indicated that both the life support system (the metal box), and the EVE or Extra Vehicular Emergency suit (the belt) were correctly connected and working. Tyco then grabbed the last piece of the ensemble, the helmet. The helmet resembled something that a macros rider on their twenty first century dirt bikes might have worn. It was painted a dull navy blue with some variations added by the pilots. The peak jutted out at a triangular point that reached two centimetres further than the wearer's nose. Tyco put on the helmet that had a black dragon painted around it, the same that matched the tattoo around and up his right arm. The suit felt the presence of the helmet and sealed the base to the suit leaving only the face from the top lip to the eye brows exposed. Tyco then pressed the red button which was next to the green on his wrist. A orange tinted face plate slide down into place covering the last of the exposed skin to the elements or lack of in this case. Although it was mirrored Tyco could see clear out of it, and when in his fighter would act as an internal HUD for tactical and communication. Fully dressed now Tyco closed his locker and walked to the exit door, which was actually an air lock. Once through he saw the others already suited up and awaiting their commander. Tyco looked past the fact that there was not much left for the imagination in the suits as he walked into the middle of the mixed group. The suits had been developed that thin as they incorporated nano technology, meaning the suits had a limited ability to repair itself which was a great thing if you were stuck in space with a tear in your suit. He stood before the three other pilots, the familiar feeling of adrenalin and fear mixed in his body as it had the many times before. "Okay wolves, what we have is our outpost sending a cry baby without a category and a life pod that the Captain is bringing in" he said to the shocked faces. "The cap is snagging the life pod as we speak and then we are to take the assault bout to the outpost and find out what is wrong" Tyco looked around as he heard the scrapping of metal against metal. He watched as the life pod, an egg shaped craft with three small manoeuvring jets around it mid-section, was slowly pulled into the hanger by the magnetic tow cables controlled by the bridge. Tyco felt something shoved in to his hands and looked down towards the object. One of his pilots had shoved a small pilot's sub machine gun in to them, he held it up in military fashion and was glad to see the other pilots follow suit. He then proceeded towards the pods outer control board to release the door.

Upon Keenan's orders Tyco tapped the buttons in sequence to open the pod's door. A loud hiss came with a puff of pressurized atmosphere and then the door slid open to reveal four people staring wide eyed at them. Tyco cautiontly pushed his head into view looking at the four people inside. There were two human females, both in EA Marine uniforms of navy blue and gold. Both were protecting a young Xainian and an older human male in the EA Marine uniform. Tyco's own eyes went wide as he noticed the male and one of the female marines through their clear face masks. "Dad, Marah?" he said with surprise in his voice, outside he motioned for them to lower their weapons and get a stretcher. He looked back in looking at the man blood staining his uniform. "Tyco?" the older of the two females said as she lowered her weapon, she wiped a lock of jet black hair out of her face and back behind her ear. "Is that you Law?" the other female marine said. She was older than then the first female but not by much, her copper red hair as long as the firsts though and both women had well looked after bodies even in the loose Marine dress uniform. Tyco turned his attention back to the black haired marine, "Marah what happened, Is Dad alright?" he said noticing the older marine not moving. Marah looked at him with her emerald green eyes, "He is hurt bad Tyco, Help us out" Tyco nodded quickly giving a thumbs up to his second Katlynna. She radioed Keenan to tell him that all was good while Skyla and Thomas had arrived with the doctor and a stretcher. Carefully the pilots helped the fifty year old marine out of the pod and on to the stretcher. Once he was on the stretcher the doctor plugged in the oxygen to his mask and hurried off with the two pilots to the medical bay. Meanwhile Tyco had helped Marah and the two other females out of the pod. Once he had gotten them out he looked at the red haired woman "Captain Loki … "he was cut off by her quick smile and sharp tongue. "Boy you know I hate that" she said with a quick smile to soften the blow. "Sorry Izzy, we need to see the Major with what happened" he said to the Marine's smile and turned to Marah "Katlynna will look after you till I get back sis' "he said to her as both he and Izzy walked off towards the bridge.

**Chapter 2**

Captain Elizabella Loki or Izzy as she was known by those who had known the late thirty year old, finished explaining what she knew about the last few hours of the outpost. The woman was still in her marine uniform but had tied her hair into a messy ponytail behind her. She smiled at her long-time friend and her commanders son, her usual predatory smile she had when she was about to enjoy something. "You are going in aren't you Keenan" she said more of a statement than a question. Keenan sighed shaking his head with a smile. "From your account Izzy, you don't even know what happened. And yet why do I get the feeling I couldn't stop you even if I ordered you to stay here" he said to Tyco's chuckle. "I left my favourite armour behind" she said trying to add an innocent shrug to the mix to no effect to the two men. Laughing Keenan managed to say "Lucky I think the extra help would be a good idea. Permission Granted Captain, take Airman Law and the new Xainian, Zola wasn't it, with you." He then dismissed both and headed back to the bridge. "Yes sir" was heard as the man walked out of the room. Both Izzy and Tyco headed out towards the medical deck.

Tyco stood up in the back of the boxy troop compartment of the shuttle. He held on to the holding rings that were spaced all over the roof of the craft for people to hold on to in either turbulence or zero gravity. The young man looked over at the pilots and two marines that were seated on the bench style seats the shuttle bore. "Alright, we all know why we are here, so caution people" he said as he grabbed his weapon from the seat behind him. He checked the magazine as the bump; hiss and mechanical noises filled the compartment. Tyco looked back at the Xainian, Zola in the pilot seat "How's it look out there?" he asked. "Sir we have atmosphere and a little gravity, no lights though sir" she responded as she unbuckled her seats harness.


End file.
